A look at how some historic buildings have fared over time

Sunday

The passage of time has been kinder to some historic buildings than to others. Slide each photo below to the left to see what these local properties look like today.

Gelston Castle

Located: Mohawk

Built: 1836

Current status: The building hasn’t been kept up and is completely caved in.

Information: Gelston Castle was built as a replica of a castle in Scotland by the same name. It was built by Harriet Douglas Crugar, who left the castle to her niece Fanny Monroe, who was the grandniece of President James Monroe. Fanny Monroe left the castle to her son Douglas Robinson, who married Corrine Roosevelt, the sister of president Theodore Roosevelt. It is said that James Monroe and Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt visited the castle. Noted Russian Cellist Mstislav Rostropovitch purchased the property in 1979.

Gen. Francis E. Spinner’s home

Located: Mohawk

Built: 1841

Current status: The home has been put up for sale in recent years. The current owner is unknown and members of the Herkimer County Historical Society have been unable to get inside the home to see the status of the inside.

Information: Spinner served as Herkimer County sheriff in 1834. He went on to serve as a member of Congress from 1854 to 1860 before President Abraham Lincoln appointed him treasurer, a position he held from 1861 until 1875.

Mechanics Hall

Located: Utica

Built: 1836

Current status: Owned by Mark Mojave, who plans to renovate it. The building is structurally sound but will require quite a bit of work. Mojave plans to turn it into a mixed use space with loft apartments on the top floor and commercial use on the bottom floor. He plans to get the building on the historic registry.

Information: The hall was the “cradle of culture” in Utica back in the day, featuring a meeting place and theater. Abolitionists and other human rights advocates spoke there, including Susan B. Anthony and William Lloyd Garrison. Utica's draft for the Civil War took place at Mechanics Hall on August 28, 1863. Up until about two years ago, the building still housed a printing company.

No. 3 Rutger Park

Located: Utica

Built: Circa 1830

Current status: The mansion is owned by the Landmarks Society of Greater Utica, which is working to renovate the historic home.

Information: No. 3 Rutger Park is possibly the most historic building in Central New York, historian Frank Tomaino said. It was built by Morris Miller, who bought the property in the 1820s. When he died, his son Rutger Bleecker Miller finished the house. It was owned by a number of historical figures, including possibly most famously Sen. Roscoe Conkling, who was one of the most influential Republicans in the country at the time. Nicholas Kernan also owned the home from 1893-1958. Ulysses S. Grant stayed there; Civil War generals stayed there; Alexander Hamilton’s wife stayed there.

Old City Hall

Located: Rome

Built: 1894

Current status: Under construction by YES Development, which is turning it into a mixed-use space with apartments on the top few floors and commercial space on the bottom floor.

Information: The roughly 18,000-square-foot building was designed by Walter Dickson and features three floors, an attic and a steep hipped roof leading up to the copper cupola. Old City Hall has sat vacant since the Rome Urban Renewal Agency dissolved and moved out a number of years ago. It was used for municipal purposes until the late 1970s, when the current city hall was built on West Liberty Street. Up until around 2014, it housed the Electrical Department, which was moved to the City Yard to make way for the project.

Current status: The school no longer is standing. There has been discussion about whether or not a part of it still is in existence, but historians are leaning toward no.

Information: Abolitionist Beriah Green led the Oneida Institute of Science and Industry, which was the nation’s first fully integrated institute of higher education. The school was rumored to be a part of the Underground Railroad and the county’s first Abolitionist newspaper was also printed at the school.

Union Station

Located: Utica

Built: 1914

Current status: Still standing and in operation

Information: The station was designed by Allen Stem and Alfred Fellheimer, who also designed New York City's Grand Central Station. Union Station almost was demolished until residents and the Landmarks Society of Greater Utica stepped in and fought the city to keep it. Union Station was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

Vice President James Schoolcraft Sherman’s house

Located: Utica

Built: Possibly about 1850

Current status: Demolished

Information: The home used to sit on Genesee Street between Clinton Place and Jewett Place right where Advanced Auto and Rite Aid are today. Known as “Sunny Jim,” Sherman was born in Utica in 1855, and after graduating from Hamilton College in 1878, went on to become chairman of the Oneida County Republican committee, mayor of Utica in 1884 and a member of Congress two years later. In 1908, he was elected vice president of the United States alongside President William Howard Taft, a position he held until his death in 1912, at the age of 57. Sherman spent many of his last days in his home in Utica.

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